Monday, February 11, 2008

Heading into last night's Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) match-up of Clemson at North Carolina, the Tigers had never beaten the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill, losing 52 straight times at UNC. Clemson came oh-so-close to ending the drought, holding an 11-point lead with 3 minutes to play, but Carolina came back to win in double-overtime. The free-throw disparity -- both in number of attempts and in success rate -- really stood out. Clemson went 1-7 (.143), whereas UNC went 31-36 (.861).

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Team scoring spurts of the kind I've described in numerous prior entries don't seem to occur nearly as frequently in the NBA as in college ball. With only 30 teams, the NBA doesn't have the degree of talent differential in any particular game that a lot of college games do; also, to make the NBA, players generally have to be able to shoot well.

Having said all that, last night the New Jersey Nets went on a 21-0 run against the Dallas Mavericks, en route to a 101-82 rout. According to this ESPN.com article:

The 21-point run bridged the end of the second quarter and start of the third, and it was part of a 36-6 spurt that turned a 36-25 deficit into a 61-42 lead.